About

Dogland is a story of human endeavour, Love and compassion.faced with a tidal wave of adversity and cruelty A Small Group Of People Fight Back To Make A Difference To The Lives Of hundreds of Dogs.

In October 2015 the director and photographer Paul Murphy drove 1600 miles to Los Barrios in southern Spain to adopt a small sick dog called Ryan, who had been rescued from the streets by the local dog shelter. When he got there he found a place that was inundated with stray and abandoned dogs.

Dogland is a feature length documentary that sets out to highlight the problem and difficulties of stray and abandoned dogs in Spain. The film centres on a dog pound in the town of Los Barrios in Andalusia. This pound was once a Killing Station, a place where a dog would be killed if unclaimed within 10 days.

A few years ago a group of volunteers led by the stoic Edu Gonzalez took control of the pound. They have battled to turn what was a place of death into a place of sanctuary. Day after day they look after and manage an ever increasing number of animals with the situation becoming worse rather than better. Dogs arrive every morning, captured from the streets by the dog catchers Jesus and Diego. Overnight dogs are dumped at the gate or are thrown over the fence by owners who no longer want to to keep them. Some of these dogs are in a terrible condition. The depth of cruelty in Spain in regards to animals knows no end. Edu and her team are at breaking point. At any one time they have up to 400 dogs to feed, clean and provide for. Added to that, the dogs that arrive are often suffering from disease and injury. These dogs are in a terrible condition, so the cost of medicines and veterinary treatment is very high.

All of these costs have to be met by donations as the pound gets no assistance from the Spanish government. A charity called Spanish Stray Dogs was formed by Amee Townsend in 2011. Spanish Stray Dogs has set about trying to raise money and awareness in order to help the pound. Slowly dogs are being adopted, primarily in the UK. The film follows the small group of volunteers, as they desperately try to meet the needs of the dogs and find them new homes.